• The Komati Power Plant in Mpumalanga is being retired after 61 years of service.
• The power plant will now be converted to generate and store renewable energy.
• Eskom has said that none of its employees will lose their jobs and many will be reskilled or upskilled.

With Stage 2 loadshedding currently in place and yet more loadshedding expected this week, Eskom announced this morning that Komati Power Station has been retired.

The 61 year old power plant located in Mpumalanga was shut down at midday today. According to the utility, this shut down won’t “have a significant impact on the national electricity grid” as it’s contribution was minimal.

The power station only generates 121MW of capacity. One could argue South Africa needs all the capacity it can get but – and we’re shocked to be typing this – but Eskom has a plan.

“The decommissioning of the power station has followed a diligent process which comprised undertaking a socioeconomic impact study. Eskom has held extensive engagements with the employees, labour unions, the community and all affected stakeholders and communicated the requirement to shut down the plant timeously and clearly with everyone involved,” Eskom wrote in a statement.

Importantly, no Eskom employees will lose their jobs as a result of this closure but we do have to highlight that Eskom doesn’t include contractors in that statement. According to a report from Daily Maverick, 200 contractors were employed at Komati Power Station.

So what will Komati Power Station become? Technically, it will still be a power station.

Eskom has said the plant will be converted into a renewable generation site. Here, 150MW of solar, 70MW of wind and 150MW of storage batteries will work together to add capacity to the grid. Unfortunately, Eskom hasn’t provided any sort of timeline for when this conversion will take place so for now, this is nice sentiment.

This conversion is being undertaken under the banner of the Komati Repowering and Repurposing project. As reported by News24, by 2030, the transition to renewable energy will have created 430 permanent jobs and 7 700 temporary jobs.

Perhaps most important however is the Komati Training Facility. Here, Eskom employees and members of the community will be reskilled, retrained and upskilled as appropriate.

The training facility has signed agreements with the South Africa Renewable Energy Technology Centre, the Cape Peninsula University of Technology and the Global Alliance for People and Planet to develop the training facility.

Komati Repowering and Repurposing project is said to be largest decommissioning, repowering and repurposing projects undertaken globally. While Eskom says it will serve as a “global reference” we need to make sure it’s done right and functioning properly first.

[Image – CC 0 Pixabay]